Strings Attached
by Ryu Kifujin
Summary: Goku dies in Future Trunk's time, but it was not what you had expected...*oneshot*


Strings Attached By: Ryu Kitujin 

Authors Note: Ok, so I like reading about Greek Mythology and such. So this story of mine has a neat little twist if I do say so my self, and I do. If you don't know whom the Fates are well... in the stories and such they controlled our lives and can predict the future. They did this by cut strings (ending life) and making new strings (beginning life). Now Goku as we all know falls ill of heart disease and dies in the future world of Future Trunks. So this is a twist on his story as to what really happened and how he died. I think you will like. So let their fates begin... 

The fire burn easily in the small pit of the fireplace. It was a small one-room house in the seemingly endless realm of beyond the universe. At lest this was what any Earthling would see when they look upon this area of the vast land. It became exactly what you expected. For example if you thought you would see a large city, that is what you would see. Since we are only mortals, this is so, and this is what the mortals of Earth would have seen and heard in this small cottage. Had they ever the chance to see this land. 

Being as I said before this would not be your ordinary cottage, because the owners are people you and I both know very well, but have never meet. Impossible you say? Well, just watch and believe. 

Three lovely young women work in this one-room cottage. They are the most beautiful things an Earth man could ever lay his eyes on and their every move would make you gasp at the grace and compassion in it. The cottage on the other hand could use to be swept and cleaned well, but the women of the house are ever too much busy to clean. The first woman works on an old fashion loom were the shuttle passes quickly through the loops of elaborate thread held high on a solid cherry wood frame. Her fingers never stopping as she weaves life into the pattern of cloth. She is the first of the fates. 

Her second sister is in the corner of the room making thread of the finest silks and fibers and then some of the not so fine fibers. Some of these are real gold that shine and glitter in the firelight by which they work and they inhabited a basket of woven starlight sitting to her right. Others are made of course wool, which she keeps in a different basket made of rough straw beside her on the left. Her majestic long fingernails curve ever so slightly to make them perfect for picking out fibers. 

The third and last of these sisters is the up most drop dead beautiful of them all. She has dark hair and eyes the color of pools of rain on a raining day. These wonderful eyes are set back in her head just above her small curved nose. Pale skin covers her whole body with a smooth a creamy light texture. Her short lips look to be rose buds in the early spring. With all this beauty she walks along the many selves that cover the small cottage walls. On these selves are the many colors of the beautifully woven cloth that are stored. 

This may seem odd to you, but in a minute it will make perfect since. This third and last lady carried a pair of shears. They were short and sliver in color, but looked old and seemed as normal as could be. Here and there she made small cuts using them on these lovely woven pieces. What a waste you would say! They could sell them for plenty of money in just about any market. You forget though that these are the fates. Goddesses of life and death and well...fate, and you guessed it, these very threads are you. You live your life meeting others and they shape you to a piece of cloth made of others dreams, and our own, others hopes and our own and opinions too. You could go on forever with the amount of people, and the fates do. 

This particular day though, our dear last fate found something very interesting among the piles of cloth on the shelf that had been long forgotten or just simply looked over for awhile. It was a spectacular piece needless to say. It was strung with some of the finest of silks. The mixtures of gold and star light color were so perfect that event this goddess was amazed at the beauty. Her light fingers ran across in until she came to a surprising stain. It was dark and dried well on and most likely not going to come off, as she examined closer she could tell it was blood. The person had killed before. The closer she looked the more she found. "How could someone of such beauty kill?" she asked herself. There were also two or three places she had cut, but they had been tied together again. Odd, one does not come back from the dead so readily. 

Looking at her first sister she stopped and asked when the last time she had added life to it. 

"Not for awhile I suppose. It looks to need it though." She took the cloth from her sister and began to work with its life threads. Unexpectedly they were all, three sisters, drawn to watching the strings, as the sister wove together the lines they drew closer for it seemed the shears would soon be needed. What a pity they all thought. It was really too bad. As they looked closer and saw the time draw nearer they watched the shears begin to cut the first threads. 

Evening was drawing nearer and Chi-chi began to worry if Bulma was going to show or not. To encourage herself she reached down and held her husband's hand. It was solid and strong, but at the moment completely out of it. The doctors had given him some medication to taken away from the pain, but it knocked him out and caused him to sleep event more than he had before. 

Chi-chi came everyday to the hospital since Goku had fallen ill, and so had Bulma, but she had said she might not make it today, because of a few very necessary meetings that were this evening. It had become a ritual of them both saying goodnights together to Goku before leaving him in peace and back to there own homes. To make it worse the doctors continued to say he might not make it another day, but Chi-chi knew her husband for too long to know that he would never give up so easily. He had always been strong both in heart and body. 

There was a tug on her shirt and she looked up from the chair she sat in to her son's eyes. A moment ago he was sitting in a chair across the room in complete silence and now he came to her and pointed to the hospital room door in which Bulma was knocking on. She had been caught up in her own thoughts that it seemed as if the world had stopped. Silently she opened the door for Bulma and they both came to Goku's body lying out casually on a hospital bed. Chi-chi began to cry and Bulma held her and let her sob on her shoulder. Chi-chi could not really hug Bulma very well, because she was seven months or so pregnant, but it would have to do. 

It took about an hour before Chi-chi was really ready to leave and had to kiss her husband on the check once more before she left. Gohan stood in the shadows and could do nothing. He had tried to comfort his mother, but Bulma always did a better job. Maybe they had just been through a lot together. 

Chi-chi continued to stutter some and seemed to have a very bad feeling about tonight. Finally Gohan was the last to leave the room and switched the lights off. He closed the door slowly and watched the last of the light stream across his father's face until the door closed completely. He would never forget that face. The smooth soft relaxed look. He was at peace. 

Now, Goku's family and Bulma were not the only ones there that night. In the shadows was the only window in the whole room and though it was locked it still didn't keep this person out. In fact it only encouraged the person to find away of opening it with out waking anyone. 

A small light beam hit the window and the glass began to glow a light pink. The beam moved in a steady circle till it reached it's other end. Here the light stopped and the circle that had been cut was now being pushed out from the other side. Slowly...slowly...and there was a short pop as it fell from the slot in first was in, but instead of falling to the ground it floated in the air slightly away from the slot through which it came. There was a quiet pause as if to measure the silence for a moment. Then a familiar white-gloved hand reached in and down to lift the small latch with a click. The stealthy hand moved back behind the glass and a moment later the window was lifted up. 

A shadow of a body entered and smiled as it grabbed the piece of glass that floated loyally. The gloves lightly felt around the sharp edges and when they became bored they laid the glass on a table not far away from where the body that held them. From here the eyes of this shadow finally looked around the small round, but at last landed on the figure on the medical bed...Goku. 

"Kakorot." The voice whispered, " I know you are awake." 

The figure on the bed stirred and turned. "Ve...Vegata." It mumbled weakly. 

The other figure smiled at knowing that he still had enough sense to know it was him, Vegeta. Goku rolled to his side and then to his back, all the while Vegeta watched him. 

"You look so pathetic laying there with barely enough strength to move yourself." Vegeta continued to whisper. It was one of the rare occasions he did not yell at someone. To his surprise Goku only laughed and Vegeta thought for sure he had lost his mind. 

"Death comes to us all someday." The reply was short and horse sounding. 

"Those friends of yours will wish you back. You cannot die forever as long as they live." Vegeta surprised himself by this, but Goku had surprised him by saying he was going to die and he sounded as if it was forever. 

The figure on the bed paused for a moment as if having to think out what to say and then continued. "You are right. I will not die as long as I have my friends, but my physical self will. It was not made to last forever. Life lasts as long as you live it." 

"You are talking nonsense, Kakorot, what would the world do without you? Your friends would surely wish you back. You have no reason to die." 

"Then what are you doing here?" The question was short and to the point and it hit a real nerve too. What did make him come here tonight? He had felt a pull towards the lowly Sayinjin. Then it hit like cold water in the morning. He was going to die and he KNEW it. Darn him. Darn him. How could he? How could he do this? 

"Baka, you..." He trailed off losing his thoughts and then bed ridden Sayinjin had the nerve to smile at him. He knows was all he thought. 

Life goes on, thought Goku, they can live without me. Smile at him, I think he knows now. "Life will go on. Gohan is a smart boy, he will learn quickly and adapt." 

Here his enemy was about to die; something he had waited a long time to see and he now was not enjoying it as much as he thought it would. He should not die like this. It was not a warrior's death. Pathetic bugs slowly eating away at you and worst of all at his heart. You couldn't see them, but they had death written all over them. Of all the things Kakorot dies by it should be my hand. 

Sudden beeping awakes them from there thoughts as the life support machine beeps wildly. To Vegeta's horror the lifeline begin to fluctuate rapidly and seemingly uncontrollable. Vegeta turned to see the warrior's face, and it smiled a drunken smile and his eyes rolled back into his head. 

Last sister frowned as she began cutting the last of the life threads. It was a long a painful death and it hurt her to have to do this to anyone so beautiful. 

For the first time in his life Vegeta did not have the faintest idea what to do. He glanced at the machine that Kakorot was hocked to and looked for a save-the-life button, but found none. It continued to beep and seemed to mock the fact he did not know how to work it. He hated technology right then and there. Despising the fact that it caused so much trouble. 

The lifeline began to steady and there was a gasp from the man in the bed. At once Vegeta looked at him to see what it was he was going to do. 

"It happ...happens...alllll...the time." He moaned. "It's so painful too." 

"It's the machine that does this to you. Isn't it? Why don't you destroy it?" Vegeta lost all of his frantic looks and was himself again for the most part. 

The smile again and Goku made a choice that he had thought about ever sense he knew he was going to die. "Yes, it is the machine. Unplug it for me." 

Vegeta looked surprised that he wanted it unplugged and not blown up, but because he had no other reason for being there he would for fill his wishes. 

He bent to unplug it, but paused when he heard Kakorot's raspy voice again. "Could you also tell my family that I love them, especially Chi-chi?" 

"Do it your self tomorrow." 

Laughter. He was laughing. "Yes, I guess I will." 

Goku laid back as if to fall asleep again. It was peaceful. 

Vegeta reached down and grabbed the plug roughly and pulled. It came out of the socket smooth and cleanly. He watched as the computer came to a halt and the lights on it flicked out suddenly. Then he afforded himself a smug look and glanced at Kakorot. 

He laid peacefully with his head on the pillow and his eyes shut as if he had fallen asleep. Taking a closer look he saw that his chest no longer heaved up and down and that his face seemed to be losing temperature. Funny...he looked dead. For the second time that day it dawned on him what he had just done. No... He did not just do that. 

He reached down to the discarded plug on the floor and fumbled to push it back into its outlet. The computer came back on and began to beep, but the lifeline refused to move. It stayed straight and long. The long stretching beep that came with it echoed in his mind. Kakorot had made he, Vegeta, kill him. Death by his hands. This was not what he had wanted. He wanted a fight, not to unplug him. "Baka..." but there was no one left to hear him. 

The others would find him in the morning. He would need to leave now. Slipping back through the window he placed the circle of glass back were it was and melted it just so you could barely tell it had event moved before. He would never tell anyone. It was his and Kakorot's secret. 

First sister looked angrily at last sister. "You fool you cut his life away before his time!" 

Last sister felt ashamed, but still would not hold her tongue. "I couldn't watch him suffer any more!" 

"So what do you go and do," First sister continued, " make another take his life!" She pulled the shears for the Last sister's hands and held them. "There are penalties for breaking the rules. One million years of using your knife to cut with rather than shears." 

And so it was for the fates and as Goku had said. "Life will go on." 

The End. 


End file.
